


Put a Little Pep in Your Step!

by jojotier



Category: Witch's Heart (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Crying, Dancing, Fluff, Gen, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, No Spoilers, Slow Dancing, Swing Dancing, Waltzing, and obviously nothing bad can happen, h a h a, here have some cute fun dancing where everyone is happy, maybe some hints of romance?, not much of course haha, this game kills me.........
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-17
Updated: 2018-04-17
Packaged: 2019-04-23 23:48:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14343537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jojotier/pseuds/jojotier
Summary: After three frustrating days trying to spend time with Sirius, Claire finds a good bonding activity- dancing together! Thankfully, Noel is there to help her out with the task.





	Put a Little Pep in Your Step!

**Author's Note:**

> I figured that it was about time this fandom had a fic, so here we are! With the fic I'm really proud of... sorry for the angst later vukjnfvj

“Oh, Sirius! I didn’t know you liked music!” 

Claire brushed the dust from the cover of the sleeve holding the vinyl record, trying to get a closer look as she felt Sirius’s glare bore into the back of her head. She didn’t really know why he was getting all sour about it- besides, it was his fault that she was looking at this anyway! Maybe if he took a break from tracing all those weird patterns over and over he could actually hang out with her, instead of doing that! 

She was bored and needed something to do- so was it really such a crime if Claire was looking for that? No, she liked to think not, obviously. Dumb mean Sirius, batting her off like some kind of pest… 

“Will you unhand those? I don’t need your hideous strength destroying them!” Sirius complained, finally getting up and heading over to her. Claire was honestly surprised when she didn’t hear like twenty bones crack at once, considering how he’d been hunched over his little charm thingies for pretty much since she’d gotten into this room. Still, she was less than pleased with the fact that he was making like he wanted her to give these over because she hadn’t even gotten to see what kind of music it all was yet!! 

“Hold on-! I don’t even know what kind of music it is!” Claire whined, leaning away from him while simultaneously holding the label to the light. The symbol on it was a little holographic, and very sparkly and pretty (the best kind of logo, obviously), but the name of it made her groan. 

Sirius tried to reach for it, voice pitching up a tone in that indignant way he got about pretty much everything as he hissed, “Put that down right this instant-!” 

“Ugggh, the  _ Sorceresses and Spirits Sinfonietta?  _ Really?” Big soft orchestras weren’t really her thing- it kind of got stuffy, doing the same steps over and over and over and  _ over  _ again. How boring!! No wonder Sirius was into it. 

“I’ll have you know,” Sirius said, utterly affronted as he stopped trying to physically get it back from her (as if he would really win, with those shorter arms of his!!). Instead he stood in front of her, nose raised in the air in that dumb haughty way he tended to do absolutely everything in. “that they happen to be the foremost in music, and their compositions are perfectly lovely to listen to-”

“Perfectly pretentious you mean!” Claire stuck out her tongue at him. “They didn’t even use the right word for Symphony- they went with some ultra fancy one! What even  _ is  _ a sinfonietta?!”

“It’s a  _ symphony,  _ like you GUESSED, though I suppose I wouldn’t expect someone whose skull size is leagues bigger than the size of her brain-!”

“I’m done listening now! In fact, I’m going to keep looking at more of this, so here’s your boring band music!” Sirius didn’t want to hang out with her until she gave him a reason to start bickering, so really, Claire figured that someone would have to be the adult here.

Which was hard, because even though Claire very politely and very gently placed Sirius’s seriously boring symphony junk in the box she’d found it in, taking special care not to break it (those vinyl records could be really expensive!!), she still had him basically shrieking at her about being careful, and if she broke any of this she was going to pay dearly. She guessed that he probably meant to sound threatening, but he was like, the most willowy guy that Claire had ever met, so it didn’t really work. 

“Ooooh, now here’s something nice!!” She pulled out a record covered in a deep red sleeve, sporting a nice pink flower on it. The flower looked a little bit familiar, now that she thought about it! But she didn’t really know why, exactly…

Brushing off the tickle in the back of her mind, she brushed the dust away to read.  _ Memories of Spring, by Tonio Loveheart.  _ What a cute last name!!! Claire wondered how someone could be lucky enough to get a last name that combined two of the cutest things in the world together? Still, what luck for her! “Sirius, do you know what genre this is?” 

Sirius helpfully paused his tantrum for the moment to say, making a little face, “It’s swing music- it’s not really anything that I’m partial to, but Lady Dorothy-”

“Swing music!!” Claire exclaimed, grinning happily as she held the record up. Sirius’s hands scrambled on her arms as if he was trying to reach for it.

“Hey,  _ put that down right this instant-!” _

“We should listen to it, Sirius!!” Claire decided, “Better yet! You should take a break from your fancy schmancy spell thingies and dance with me!”

“No, absolutely not! I  _ refuse!”  _ Sirius’s mouth twisted as if Claire had asked him to do the most abhorrent thing in the world. When it came to Sirius, she could never tell if he actually hated fun or if he was just constantly having some bad experience that she couldn’t see. She didn’t know what would be so bad about this though!! It was just dancing! “We are  _ trapped  _ in this manor already and I have no desire to make myself any more miserable than I already am-!”

“Aww, what?” Claire frowned, eyebrows furrowing, “Are you bad at dancing or something? It’s okay if you are. I don’t mind- maybe I can teach you-!”

“I will have you know that my dancing is perfectly fine-! But that’s not the point!” Sirius bit out, gritting his teeth. “Give me back that record!”

“Noooo!” Claire whined, and thus the fight over the record began. “Please please please please can we at least listen?? You won’t let me touch anything else!!”

“Because I don’t like people touching my things!!”

“I’ll be super super careful not to dance too much!”

“I don’t care! You’ll distract me from my work!”

They kept bickering like that, and were so engrossed in it that Claire didn’t notice the door slowly opening, nor did she notice that the record had already been put away and that they were both just gesturing wildly at each other at this point. Claire threw her hands up, groaning loudly. “Why are you so difficult, Sirius?!”

“Why am I difficult?!” Sirius gasped, eyes blazing, “Why am I DIFFICULT?? Oh that’s really  _ rich  _ coming from you-!”

“Uh…” A voice coughed. “Am I… interrupting something?”

The both of them paused their fight to look at who wandered in. Oh- it was just Noel. He awkwardly stood in the doorway, poking his head in almost shyly as he tilted his head down. His bang was still covering his other eye, and man, was it weird to find that a little weird? At least weird enough for Claire to want to reach out and brush that hair behind Noel’s ear. Okay, totally not the time to think about touching a really pretty guy’s hair. Wait. What? What was she thinking about? Not touching Noel’s hair, that was for certain.

Sirius straightened up, brushing down the front of his jacket. “Nothing at all, Noel. Was there something that you needed?” 

“Oh, I was just looking to see some of the books that you have....” Noel said in that soft voice of his. He walked into the room to stand in front of them, hunching in on himself slightly, as if trying to get more to Sirius’s height. “It’s been a little bit dull around here, and Ashe seems to be a little more interested in talking to Wilardo for today…” 

“Well, I suppose you can have a look around… just so long as you don’t go up in the back. Though I don’t know what you would find interesting here.” Sirius said, about to turn his back on the both of them. Noel gave a slightly disappointed, ‘oh…’, and then Claire got a brilliant, wonderful, slightly totally evil plan… 

Quickly snapping up the  _ Memories of Spring  _ record, she held it up triumphantly, grinning. “Noel!! Noel, if you’re bored, would you like to dance with me?”

Sirius’s head whipped back towards their direction, and Claire imagined him frothing at the mouth as he said, “Now hold on one moment-!!”

“Oh?” Noel said, looking at the record. His eyes lit up a little bit. “It’s been a while… I don’t know how good I’ll be, I’m afraid… Perhaps we shouldn’t…”

“It’s not about being good!! It’s about having fun!” Claire said, batting her eyelashes up at him. “Sirius doesn’t want to dance with me, and! It’s so much more fun to dance with someone! So pretty please…?”

Noel looked away, putting a hand up to his chin to think for a moment. Claire smiled wide, trying to give the biggest puppy dog eyes that she could. “... Yes, I think I will. If you’ll have me as a partner, of course.”

“Perfect!!” Claire had the foresight to set the record to the side gently before clapping excitedly. She turned towards Sirius, grinning. “So then Sirius, where’s the record player?”

“Hey now, I never said you could use it!” Sirius seethed slightly, crossing his arms over his chest. “I don’t want to get distracted-” 

“We’ll just do a song or two!” Claire protested, and Noel nodded, prompting Sirius to turn a slightly horrified gaze onto him. 

“... Oh no, you’re not going to do that  _ thing,  _ are you-”

“Just. One or two songs!” Noel echoed, and Claire smiled at the surprise of the backup.

“It won’t take long!” Claire said.

“Not at all.” Noel agreed. 

“You don’t need to dance at all!”

“Not at all!”

“We’ll be handling the dancing- and maybe you can have a break-”

“Yes, yes, a break-”

“Oh my God I can’t believe you two are still like this.” Sirius groaned from where he had been sitting, face slowly, oh so slowly, twisting up. Claire had no idea what that meant since this was pretty much the first time that she could remember ever doing this before with anyone, much less with Noel. After all, they’d only just met three days ago…

“Please Sirius,” Noel asked gently, smiling. “May we borrow your record player? I’ll make sure to keep it limited to just a few songs. It won’t do to dance the night away, after all.”

Sirius glared at the both of them, and then finally huffed out a breath, making a big show out of tossing himself back onto his chair and crossing his arms. And Claire thought that she could be childish sometimes! “Fine.  _ Fine!  _ You can use it- but only for a few songs. I need sleep and I refuse to let you take that player out of this room.”

Claire squealed, clapping a little more. “Oh, thank you, Sirius!! That really is kind of you~”

“Just don’t expect me to dance.” Sirius groused, and Noel smiled as he took out the record player stored near the records. Huh, Claire hadn’t seen it there! She wondered how he knew where it was. Or maybe he just had the foresight to check where the other records were… Which was really smart!! She wouldn’t doubt that Noel was secretly super duper smart- like a secret genius!- with how quiet he was! Claire took out the record that she was hoping to listen to, and watched Noel set everything up.

Soon, the needle was brought down on the smooth, black surface, and the opening notes of a slightly slower song played. Noel gestured for Claire to come and the both of them moved Sirius and his chairs and table a little bit against the wall, so that they’d have some room (despite his mad grumbling), and the next track started to play. Noel straightened his jacket out a bit and held out his hand, smiling at Claire as he bowed a little.

“May I have this dance?” 

Claire couldn’t help but grin widely. Oooh, how fancy of Noel! Now she felt like a proper lady, even if she wasn’t even in that super nice dress that Sirius had given her! It really had been a while since she danced… “Oh, but of course…” She said, taking his hand and stepping forward to fall into step alongside Noel. The tempo of the music picked up with some snazzy jazz beats and what Claire was pretty sure was a saxophone doing its thing, and the both of them tried to keep up with the beat, both hands intertwined and both trying to step and swing their hips in time.

It didn’t end up working, and Claire may or may not have been getting her toes stepped on occasionally. Noel tried to twirl her, and that was going great!! Until she got dizzy and fell forwards, causing the both of them to stumble over each other’s feet. Wow, they were both really bad at this! Thankfully, Noel didn’t seem to have much of a problem with the stumbling and toe stepping, and kind of seemed to be trying to hold back laughter. 

Hm, funny. Claire didn’t think that she’d seen him laugh much at all, during this entire house trapping. In fact, he mostly seemed somber and lost in thought, with a weirdly worried look on his face. This was the first time she’d really seen him smile wide. 

The next song started and it was even faster. If the first song was a disaster, then this one was a trainwreck meeting a hurricane- Claire tried to keep up with the rhythm, but she just ended up tiring herself out. This time when a twirl was tried, she twirled Noel to see if that would help- but considering the fact that Noel was way taller than she was and considering the fact that her arm could only go up so far, that didn’t end up working out either! It was a huge mess, but honestly? She couldn’t be happier!

On a particularly jazzy section, she tried to swing her hips while spicing up her footwork, and suddenly Claire and Noel were both tumbling to the ground, with Noel giving a funny little squeak when his back collided with it. Claire tripped on top of him, face first into his chest, and couldn’t help but giggle slightly after a moment of shock. Then Noel was snickering too, and the both of them were laughing as this especially long song went on. 

Spur of the moment, as Claire lifted her face up, she scrunched up her nose, sticking out her tongue and crossing her eyes with a childish “Bwahhh!” It worked better than she could have ever expected- Noel broke down into more peals of laughter, head thumping back on the floor slightly. She stuck her tongue out further, wiggling her eyebrows and he gasped for breath, trying to cover his face as he got out, “Mercy, mercy-”

“You two are  _ absolute children,” _ Sirius commented snidely from off to the side, giving them both a look that obviously showed his sentiment of  _ what the hell is with you two,  _ and Claire realized that the both of them were sweaty and probably a little delirious from spinning and moving around so wildly without a break. 

Noel’s giggles died down just enough for him to start getting up, helping Claire along the way, and they went right back to their frenzied pace.

The song faded out, and the last song on that side started to play. It was thankfully at a way more merciful tempo, and they were able to keep up with it in steps that were more like a waltz than anything. She’d been under the impression that the record was instrumental, but there was a woman humming as if gearing up to sing. She and Noel both caught their breaths, and Sirius off to the side gave a derisive little snort. Looking at Noel red-faced and close to breaking down into laughter, Claire smiled. 

She never really thought about what she was going to say before she said it- and in fact, keeping all that bottled up was a surefire way to get worried and dumb later- and Claire smiled, whispering to Noel, “Don’t worry- we’ll all get out of here in no time.” 

Claire only had a moment to watch the smile suddenly slide off of his face before a woman’s voice sounded from the record, sounding soft, and strangely familiar.

_ “In the valley, in the spring… The wind will dance~” _

She knew this song but listening to the woman sing, it made Claire wonder where she’d heard it the first time. That didn’t last for long, though, because she was preoccupied with Noel’s gaze drifting downwards, that somber look coming back to him. 

Sirius suddenly got up from where he was sitting, a strange look on his face mingling with his usual irritation. “I’ll turn it off-”

“No,” Noel said, voice barely above a whisper. “Keep it on. Please.” 

_ “Two dance through the air… I’m a po~or little sweet pea…” _

His hands tightened gently around Claire’s, and she was being pulled closer. Their dancing wasn’t nearly as crazy or energetic- now it was just the two of them, pulled into a waltz, not taking up much space. Noel’s hands finally drifted to pull her by the waist, and now, they were properly waltzing now- which wasn’t all that good, because now Claire was the one stepping on Noel’s toes. “Sorry,” She mumbled, embarrassed, because just what the heck had caused the atmosphere to shift so dramatically? Had she said something weird?

“No, it’s okay. You’re doing wonderfully as always, Claire.” Noel said gently, and Claire could swear that his voice was thicker. “... I should be the one saying sorry, anyway. We were having fun…”

“If you want to stop, we can- it’s late, and I mean… if this song-”

“This song… I love this song. Do you not like it…?” 

“Oh no- I love this song too. It’s one of my favorites...” 

The last couple of lines were winding through the room, and the mood was horribly sad now. It felt almost as if someone had died… Or maybe it was more like Noel was remembering something that she couldn’t tell. Looking up at him, from where she was intimately pressed against him, she caught sight of his eyes growing misty, even with the smile that seemed forcefully plastered on his face. 

 

“Noel…”

_ It’s okay if you don’t want to tell me right now. _

_ But I can’t stand it… to see you cry… _

 

The record slowed to a stop, and the both of them stood in the center of the room, Noel’s hold squeezing a little more. As if he was afraid of something… As if he was holding on for dear life… As if Claire would go away if he let go.

“Noel, please, don’t…” 

“I can’t stand here and watch you two anymore!” The both of them jumped, and Claire caught the movement of some fresh tears slipping from Noel’s eyes before he scrubbed at them forcefully. Sirius stood there, tense, eyes closed as if he was in pain. Ah- she’d completely forgotten that he was there. And that this was his room… So of course he must have figured out the weird atmosphere- “Claire, your dancing is horrendous!” 

“.... Ehhhh???” Claire blinked, not sure whether to be affronted or confused first. 

“Huh?” Noel asked, just as caught off guard as she was. 

“No- worse than horrendous!! The worst I’ve ever seen! No wonder Noel is in distress!” Sirius stood up straighter, eyes opening as he stared the both of them down. Turning his nose up, he said, “Claire, unhand him this instant- I will simply have to show you how it’s done.”

“... Sirius?” Noel questioned, eyes widening slightly in surprise. 

Claire gasped suddenly, putting the pieces together. “Sirius!! You’re going to dance too!!!”

“Get that look off your face!” Sirius snapped, making a bit of a face. “And it’s not as if I truly  _ want  _ to- once again, you two seem to have a knack for dragging me into nonsense by virtue of your blatant lack of skill.”

“Again-?” Claire tried to question, because- what? Why would Sirius say-

“Well? Turn the record over and start the music, will you?” Sirius ordered, rolling up his sleeves as he took Noel’s hands. “No dancing can be done without music.”

“... Aye aye, sir!” Claire said, kicking herself into gear and doing as she was asked. Noel glanced back at her, seemingly still confused, before Sirius called his attention back with some muttered words that Claire couldn’t seem to catch. Whatever they were, they caused Noel to smile again, just a little bit- so Claire was glad about that!

Maybe Sirius had caught on, after all… If that was the case, Claire would have to thank him.

The music started, a tune that was a bit more like a waltz than the jazzy swing beats from before, and Sirius actually seemed to know what he was doing- Claire watched him coach Noel through the steps, letting Noel take the lead while he followed along to make it easier, and it seemed to work wonders in distracting him. That was good… 

Noel had seemed to hurt so much while listening to that song- Claire wondered why… 

Deciding to leave for the moment, she figured that it wouldn’t hurt to bring some water for everyone- dancing around was hard work, after all!! Hydration was important, and Claire would never skip out on such a key feature of living! Bringing a tray with the water pitcher and several glasses from the dining room, Claire paused outside the door, hearing some talking from within. 

“I should have recognized the rose on the cover… If she’d only have let me have a good look, I would have-!”

“It’s fine… really, it is.”

Claire decided to wait for a moment and give them their private time, listening to the music as it wafted from underneath the door. There was a pink rose on the cover- was there a name she was supposed to link with it? A name she knew, even? What kind of name…

The song was coming to a close, so Claire decided that was enough time and came in with the tray, saying in a singsong voice, “Wa~ater! Come get some!!” They didn’t really seem to be dancing anymore, but they quickly rearranged themselves back into position as if they hadn’t stopped when she left. She might have asked about that, if not for the fact that it was a really private thing- and it had seemed to help Noel, so in the end… was it her place to? Especially since, weirdly enough, Sirius already seemed to know Noel from somewhere! “It’s important to stay hydrated, so come on!”

“Using my glasses, I see…” Sirius grit out, stepping away from Noel and dusting his cloak off. “I don’t need any- I only danced to one song, and that’s enough for tonight. Shut off the player-”

The record player shot out with a sudden cacophony of musical notes, nearly making Claire drop the tray from surprise at the volume level on it. The tempo wasn’t as fast as some of the other songs- but it seemed to be at a good pace nonetheless!! Noel’s eyes widened at the sound of it, and he slowly turned to Sirius, a smile creeping onto his face. 

“No. No, don’t you dare look at me like that Levine-”

“One more song?” Noel asked, and there seemed to be a little glint of something in his eyes. Not happiness… but an almost despaired, desperate look. “Just one more… I want to stay a little longer, please.”

Claire set the tray of water on the table and knocked back half a glass, gulping it down quickly. Then, she looked at Sirius as well. “Right! Just one more song!”

“Just one more- then we can all sleep easily.” Noel said, voice catching on the word ‘easily’ with an almost pained little laugh. Just what had been talked about in here?

“Quite easily!” Claire jumped in, hoping she could distract from that. 

“Dance with us, Sirius!”

“Yea Sirius!! Dance with us!” 

“It’ll be fun…” Noel finally said, head tilting down a little. 

_ Just one more song…  _

_ Then maybe I can ask Noel why he looked like he was going to cry again. _

“... Pretty please?” Claire asked, looking at Sirius and Noel.

They got him to dance more than a couple more songs, after that.

For probably the first time she felt like she was having fun with Sirius- the first time that Noel seemed to actually let himself go and laugh more… The… the first time, surely…

_ No one seems to want this to end… But nothing’s going to happen, right? _

_ After all… _

 

_ There’s always tomorrow. _

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed!!!
> 
> If you have any requests or want to have a look at snippets of writing I haven't posted, as well as some original work, [why not have a look at my tumblr?](http://jojotier.tumblr.com/)


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